In Absentia Celestia
by Magic Rose
Summary: Things only get more confusing as Twilight, Discord, and Princess Luna try to find some of Celestia's letters and one of the windows speaks...
1. Amnesia

Author's Note: This is post-Magical Mystery Cure.

* * *

"Twilight..."

Pain. That was all she felt. Overwhelming, throbbing pain, radiating from every fiber of her being. Trying to get up, trying to move, breathe, or even _respond_ only made her shudder with the effort of it all. Even the simple act of processing sound sent spasms through her mind.

"Twilight! Wake up!"

"Quiet...please..."

Twilight groaned, lifting her head weakly and trying to see without much success. Everything in front of her was blobby and out of focus, except for some of the more noticeable colors. There was a general sensation of dizziness, but she felt herself being propped up and so got to her hooves, gritting her teeth to bear the agony and ignore the screaming from every muscle in her body.

She was offered water, which she drank quickly. After a moment or two, she found she could focus (though not very well), and so looked about for the pony who'd been helping her.

"DISCORD?" She burst out, instantly knowing who it was upon seeing nothing but a blur of brown, blue, red, green and white.

"Oh, don't look so surprised. Honestly, you'd think I was Chrysalis the way you just looked at me!" He looked down on her with the same confusion that she felt, but said nothing about it. He was not in the business of showing that he was ever lost, after all - _he _was the one who caused anyone to be puzzled, so to be on the receiving end of the deal had left him more than a little upset. _No one _showed him up like this.

"No, I...what...where is everyone else? What's going on?"

"Quite a blow to the head you must have got! You don't remember anything? Anything at all?"

"This isn't funny, Discord, now put my memory back! Agh..." She felt a burning in her eyes, so moved one wing over them in an effort to dull the ache.

"I would...maybe...if I remembered if I'd been the one to do it. Trouble is...I don't. Now would I lie to you? ...well maybe I would, but would I lie to you if it was something _important_?"

Twilight growled, but found that renewed her headache, so tried to occupy herself with checking herself for damage - the only hint of which she found to be scorch marks. She also noticed that her sight was extremely diminished (to the point she could see clearly to maybe two inches in front of her) and that no amount of splashing her eyes with water could clear it up. It was maddening - the first thing that jumped to her mind was that she could no longer read. How could she study again? How would she figure this out if not by reading?

"What's the matter, Twilight, can't see straight?"

"I can see...but...I can't see WELL. Where is everyone? Any sign of my friends?"

"You think _I _would be the one to know?"

Twilight looked around again, and then glanced back up at Discord. "Am I the only one hurt?"

"Well I don't know about that, but there's sure a lot of..._other_...damage. Buildings caved in, roofs blown away - now you _know _I'm not responsible, this is far beyond my usual trade. This isn't chaos, this is..."

"Complete destruction."

The voice was familiar, and Twilight looked carefully around to get a general appearance of ORANGE. "Applejack! What happened?"

"We don't know...no one can remember. Princess Celestia hasn't been seen and it's been three days. Princess Luna's been doin' all she can, but she's just been swamped with everything under the sun."

"We've got to figure this out...does anyone have my glasses? Spike? Where is Spike?"

"We haven't been able to find him," came a gentle voice from somewhere above her head. "In fact, Applejack and I are the only ones Discord managed to find. And he's been helping me look." Fluttershy sighed, looking down with pity upon her nearly-blind friend. It was always terrible, seeing someone stripped of something that brought them so much joy...

"And I haven't been thanked. Really, breaking my mold, being _nice__, _and I haven't been thanked a -"

"Not now!" Twilight barked at him. "Right now that is not what matters. What matters is figuring out what happened here. And why Celestia's not here doing something about it. Something must have happened if she's not around to fix it, and that means that whatever caused this is capable of overthrowing her, and may return at any time for all we know. And this amnesia - is everyone affected?"

"Mmmhmm, 'fraid so," Applejack said, nodding carefully, "And we've tried to rustle up our memories, askin' everypony if they remember anything, and no one's got any idea what happened." She adjusted her hat and then redirected Twilight's head to face her.

"T...thanks, Applejack. Now, let me think, there's got to be some trace of evidence, some little thing we're - wait, wait, I know. The palace! Celestia kept all of my letters. If we can find them, maybe we can figure out what happened here and why everypony has forgotten everything! I mean...I won't be able to...but one of you can, and hopefully that'll shed some light on the situation!"

"You think that's a good idea?" Fluttershy asked, "I mean..."

"Luna will probably have been too busy to do much of anything about it, if things are as bad as you say. She'll be more than willing to accept help," Twilight replied, squinting again and again in the vain hope of better sight, "She'll be overwhelmed with requests for aid. Discord, are you with us?"

There was a moment of silence, where he considered vanishing, but then he thought otherwise. He, too, was curious about what had happened, so he decided, begrudgingly, to play along.

"Fine. But only because you'd be _hopelessly _lost without me."


	2. Our Court

One fingersnap later, and they were in the palace courtyard.

"Discord!"

Several voices, male this time, sounded off in front of her.

"I am escorting Twilight to see the Princess," Discord answered in a huff.

"That's not the way to - oh, let me handle it," Twilight said, shoving past him and trying to focus on the white, yellow, and blue shapes in front of her. "We're trying to figure out what's going on here. Princess Luna's probably got a lot to do, and if we can help we're willing to."

The guards looked at one another, and were about to allow them (minus Discord) in, when a soft voice called from within the castle.

"Let them in. All of them."

Biting back remarks, the guards did so.

As they walked in, Luna looked up from one of many letters she had floating in front of her, a bit too frazzled to think of addressing them in as friendly of a way as she had in times past. "Discord. Twilight...and friends. We welcome you to our court. Are you able to render us aid?"

"Well what d'you need help with?" Applejack asked, "We need one of us to stay with Twilight, whatever we do, because...well, she can't see very well."

"Discord, you stay with Twilight. Applejack, we need someone to direct the cleanup efforts of Ponyville. We know you have been aiding but they need a guide."

A quick couple of flashes by Discord, and Applejack was gone. Then Luna looked to Fluttershy. "Fluttershy, we want you to simply do as you do best. Calm any animals you find."

Fluttershy nodded and left quickly.

"Twilight, we know why you are here," Luna said, putting a wing around Twilight to direct her steps a bit better, "Our sister's letters to you, correct? We, too, have looked for them, but have had little success. We know there were many, but she would surely not have gotten rid of them so easily. But if she did -"

"There must have been something she wanted hidden. But what could I have told her that..."

As they walked away, Discord was left alone, and as would be expected, he grew bored quickly. He glanced up at one of the stained glass windows, and squinted a bit. He'd been here before - after the group had befriended him. He knew that by now there were multiple new windows - there had to be! - but beyond Spike's fetching the Crystal Heart, there was only a single one he didn't recognize.

It was extremely crowded, to say the least.

In the center was a small representation of Celestia, horn raised in use of magic. Around her were many, many ponies - so many, in fact, that it was a miracle he could see her at all. And every face, even hers, had expressions of sorrow accompanied by a single tear. Something...felt familiar here, and yet, he couldn't place it. Like Pinkie Pie - it was here and there, everywhere - but he couldn't get a focus on it.

Suddenly, he saw Celestia's head move.

At first he stared. And when that brought no clarity, he leaned over backwards and looked at the window upside down. "Well...that's unusual..."

Again it moved, as if looking at him.

_Thank you..._

He stumbled back and fell in a heap, twisted up like some sort of balloon animal. But he quickly righted himself and looked back up at the window once again. Celestia moved just once more, and the window went black.

It was the most confusing things he'd ever seen, and he wanted to get to the bottom of it, so he zipped over to Luna. "What window was that?"

"The black one? We do not know," Luna said.

"No. No, it's not black. Well, it is now, but _before _that...I saw something on it."

"We would love to know what you saw, then."

"Well...it was Celestia, surrounded by more ponies than...than would gather round if Twilight gave up reading. That sort of thing."

"There was something else, was there not? We have not observed it, but then, we have not had time to look at the windows of late. Let us walk back to it. Perhaps it will be a clue as to what has happened."

They walked back together, and the three of them looked up at it.

"We see our sister, but that is all that we see, Discord." Luna looked up, seeing her sister in flight, on a sea of dark clouds, and then blackness. She then turned to Twilight and directed her eyes to the window.

But she could not see the window properly - the only thing she made out was Celestia's body.

In the window, Celestia's wings were curled around Rarity and Pinkie Pie, both of whom had faces hidden.

Twilight squinted and squinted, and was about to give up entirely when she heard something, like disjointed pieces of conversation...

_Friendship...hold it close..._

And then, nothing but silence. The words made little sense to Twilight - after all, she already knew that. She had always held her friends closely, always loved them as any friend should. Perhaps Celestia was telling her this as a clue? Perhaps she didn't know that her letters would be the first thing that was sought, and wanted to tell her to do so?

"No, she would know better," she mused to herself, scratching her cheek with a hoof, "She sent them to me one time, even."

"Let us see to her quarters," Luna said, "Perhaps we may find a few letters there." She left momentarily to get two guards to take care of the letters, and then lead them off down one of the hallways.

Celestia's room was set with a single guard, who let them in without a word.

And thus the search began - they checked every drawer, her wardrobe, and even under the bed, without much success. Only three letters were found.

"Only three...but...do they look important?"

Discord was beginning to feel very upset, but swallowed his annoyance as he remembered what he had put them through in the past. Perhaps he could indulge them, just a bit further.

"Boring business..." he said, flipping through the first letter, handing it off to Luna. "Something about delaying the sunrise, as if that means anything. I suggest we-"

"Perhaps you should let us read them?" Luna asked, glancing over the letter. "This is dated six months ago. Delaying the sunrise to...to...lower the risk of...what _is _this word?"

"You don't know it?" Twilight asked.

"No, it is not that. There are many words we do not recognize, but we can't even _look _at this one!"

And neither, it seemed, could Discord. So they put that letter aside, and moved on to the next one.

This time, both of them leaned over to read it.

"Let's see here..." Discord said, "Well! This is for sisterly eyes only."

"What? What is it?" Twilight asked.

"It is a plea from our sister...here, we will read it to you. 'Dearest Luna, by the time you receive this letter, I will not be around to help you decipher the meaning of this situation. Luna, please, take care of Twilight for me. She will need you far more than you will ever know..." She continued reading, but it contained no further clues than that, just directions about vital things that Luna would have to do.

"Far more than - how could she..."

"So...she had to do something, for a reason that she obviously didn't see coming, but she clearly saw Twilight's eye problem coming..."

"Silence! Now...the last one..."

"Well?"

"The last one is to Twilight...but...here, we will read it to you. 'My dear Twilight, I ask your forgiveness. I was blind...' And that is all that it says."

"Well, _that _was certainly helpful," Discord muttered, "And what was Celestia _ever _blind about?"

"More importantly," Twilight piped in, "Why would she be _apologizing _to me about it? She never does anything wrong, never."

"We'll figure it out," Luna said, shaking her head. "Twilight and Discord, for the time being, we want you both to stay in the castle. The situation is dire at the moment, and we simply _cannot _spare the time to hunt down facts that don't relate to disaster relief. So we thank you."

She nodded to one of the guards that had followed her in, and he in turn lead Twilight and Discord to a nice set of rooms a hallway or two over.

That night was difficult.

"Why?" Twilight muttered. "Why did you do this, Celestia?"


End file.
